How to Make Strawberry Apple Fruit Leather Roll-ups
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Making your own fruit leather is rewarding for many different reasons. My top two are that it’s addictively DELICIOUS and tastes actually like fruit and it’s cheap to make. Fruit leather requires very simple ingredients and a bit of patience. That’s it. Buying fruit snacks or store-bought fruit roll-ups or fruit leather from the store can get pricy, especially if you’re looking for good ingredients, so why not try your hand at it at home. Use fruit that you’ve canned and go nuts with a healthy snack!
Today specifically I whipped together my strawberry apple fruit leather, which is our favorite because the texture is perfection. I’ve shared a recipe for just strawberry fruit leather which is BOMB DOT COM, but sometimes adding some apple is just what the doctor ordered. Well, what I ordered anyway, because you won’t see me giving a flying flip what a doctor has to say to me unless I’m dead… and then, I’ll be in the arms of Jesus and won’t care then either. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah. Fruit leather. You can use fresh fruit, canned fruit, a mix of both, whatever you have, be creative! Today I’m using fresh strawberries and home canned applesauce for this recipe, but you could absolutely puree down some fresh apples to make the same measurement. I also added a spoonful of sugar because the applesauce I made was so tart and made me pucker when I tried it. Just be careful with added sugar or it will make your fruit leather less like leather and more like a really sticky fruit glass if you add too much sugar. Err on the side of less because the fruit will concentrate in the dehydrator as the water content is removed and get a touch sweeter. You can also use honey or maple syrup or nothing at all!
Dehydrator or Oven?!
If you don’t have a dehydrator, I recommend watching out for one on Facebook Marketplace or at the thrift stores. You’ll occasionally come across one. Or save your pennies and buy you one! I will link the brand of dehydrator I’ve had for going on 6-7 years and it works like a dog year around and has never gave me fits. I even had to completely dismantle it to clean it after spilling eggs on the bottom (the smelllllllllllllll) that ran back into the fan and put it back together and it still runs great! I recommend getting a dehydrator with trays and a fan in the back as opposed to the bottom as the drying is even and you don’t have to rearrange the trays quite a bit for even drying. BUT, if that’s all you can get is one with a fan on the bottom, it works just fine!
To make fruit leather in your oven, you’ll want to set it on the lowest setting possible and leave it cracked open with a wooden spoon. Your oven will be running for several hours, but probably not as long as the dehydrator, and you have to make sure you’re not overheating the fruit leather. Just make sure you’re getting a nice, pliable sheet of fruit. Simply use a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper or wax paper and spread it out thin. You could also use two of the lipped silicone mat I linked below on a baking sheet to make uniform rectangles. Either method works, but I prefer my dehydrator!
Another great thing about owning a food dehydrator and not relying on your oven to dry things, is when you dehydrate onions or garlic or beef jerky, which can stink to high heavens, you can take your dehydrator outside and run it out there. That keeps the smell OUTSIDE so your entire house and your soul don’t smell like onions or beef jerky for the rest of your life. That’s a pro tip I had to learn the hard way after I made beef heart jerky in our basement and I swear even our mattress smelled like it for months :D and the coat closet… OMG… it smelled so bad! hahahahhaah ahhh memories.
Let’s get started with this homemade fruit leather recipe!
Equipment You Might Want:
- Blender
- Silicone Fruit Leather Mats
- Food Dehydrator
- Wide mouth jar
- Used, clean canning lid
- Mason Jar Vacuum Sealer
Ingredients:
- 1 quart applesauce
- 2 pounds fresh strawberries (or 2 pints strawberry sauce)
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
Step 1: Prep
Start by washing the strawberries and removing the tops. Halve and place in a blender or food processor. Add sugar if desired and puree until smooth.
If you want, you can run the strawberry puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds but we don’t worry about that here.
Step 2: Mix
Dump in 1 quart of applesauce. Mix to combine.
Step 3: Dehydrate
To each silicone tray liner, add 2 cups of fruit puree. This recipe will make 4 sheets of fruit leather. If you don’t have fruit leather silicone mats, use parchment paper to line the trays of your dehydrator.
Spread the fruit puree out into an even thin-ish layer. I like to tap the mats on the counter several times to spread them out evenly. If you do a thick layer, plan on dry time to be much longer.
Place the mats on trays in your dehydrator, spaced out evenly if using one with a back fan. If using a dehydrator with a bottom fan, stack trays and rotate as normal.
Dehydrate at 135 degrees F for 6-8 hours. You want the center to be just set and the corners will easily pull away from the liner; start checking for doneness at the 6 hour mark.
Oven method: Spread the puree between 2 lined rimmed baking sheets. Set your oven on the lowest setting possible (225F) and cock the door open with a wooden spoon. The door open allows the drying process to work a bit better rather than trapping all the moisture inside your oven.
Bake until the leather has just set in the middle, which you can easily tell by poking with your finger. The oven normally takes around 3 hours, but start checking for doneness at 2 hours.
For either method, once the leather has just set in the middle, carefully remove the sheet from the liner and flip it over. I have found this helps with faster dry times and a better texture, especially when using the silicone liner so the top doesn’t get overdried and the bottom stays tacky. After flipping, let it dry for an additional 30-60 minutes. You’re looking for a sheet of leather that’s pliable but not watery or sticky.
Step 4: Store
Remove the fruit leather sheet from the dehydrator fruit leather trays and allow the sheet of fruit leather to cool to room temperature for about 5-10 minutes. Just in case there’s a bit of moisture left, I don’t want to be adding rolls to a jar and sealing and risk condensation. Condensation means mold and I would be heartbroken!
Roll up each sheet and cut into 6 pieces using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife or kitchen shears.
Place rolls into a clean mason jar, wide mouth preferably for easy removal, and add a clean used lid to the top and vacuum seal.
Fruit leather will keep on the shelf for about 6-12 months, depending on if it was dried properly. It doesn’t last that long around here though. I’d say 2 days max. It’s surely a treat.
Notes:
Some folks roll these up with parchment so they don’t stick together but we’ve found that to be entirely unnecessary and just roll them up and peel them apart when eating them and they’re just fine!
We make fruit leather for a great snack to share or even for my children’s friend’s birthday gifts. No more toys or mess to gift the parents… we give snacks, and who can complain about snacks?!
This is a great way to use up fruit in the fridge that’s going bad or use canned fruit you need to rotate out. My kids go wild for fruit leather!
I hope you enjoy this delicious fruit leather :)
Equipment
- Blender
- Wide mouth jar
- Used, clean canning lid
Ingredients
- 1 quart applesauce
- 2 pounds fresh strawberries or 2 pints strawberry sauce
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- Start by washing the strawberries and removing the tops. Halve and place in a blender or food processor. Add sugar if desired and puree until smooth.
- If you want, you can run the strawberry puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds but we don’t worry about that here.
- Dump in 1 quart of applesauce. Mix to combine.
- To each silicone tray liner, add 2 cups of fruit puree. This recipe will make 4 sheets of fruit leather. If you don’t have fruit leather silicone mats, use parchment paper to line the trays of your dehydrator.
- Spread the fruit puree out into an even thin-ish layer. I like to tap the mats on the counter several times to spread them out evenly. If you do a thick layer, plan on dry time to be much longer.
- Place the mats on trays in your dehydrator, spaced out evenly if using one with a back fan. If using a dehydrator with a bottom fan, stack trays and rotate as normal.
- Dehydrate at 135 degrees F for 6-8 hours. You want the center to be just set and the corners will easily pull away from the liner; start checking for doneness at the 6 hour mark.
- Oven method: Spread the puree between 2 lined rimmed baking sheets. Set your oven on the lowest setting possible (225F) and cock the door open with a wooden spoon. The door open allows the drying process to work a bit better rather than trapping all the moisture inside your oven.
- Bake until the leather has just set in the middle, which you can easily tell by poking with your finger. The oven normally takes around 3 hours, but start checking for doneness at 2 hours.
- For either method, once the leather has just set in the middle, carefully remove the sheet from the liner and flip it over. I have found this helps with faster dry times and a better texture, especially when using the silicone liner so the top doesn’t get overdried and the bottom stays tacky. After flipping, let it dry for an additional 30-60 minutes. You’re looking for a sheet of leather that’s pliable but not watery or sticky.
- Remove the fruit leather sheet from the dehydrator fruit leather trays and allow the sheet of fruit leather to cool to room temperature for about 5-10 minutes. Just in case there’s a bit of moisture left, I don’t want to be adding rolls to a jar and sealing and risk condensation. Condensation means mold and I would be heartbroken!
- Roll up each sheet and cut into 6 pieces using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife or kitchen shears.
- Place rolls into a clean mason jar, wide mouth preferably for easy removal, and add a clean used lid to the top and vacuum seal.
- Fruit leather will keep on the shelf for about 6-12 months, depending on if it was dried properly. It doesn’t last that long around here though. I’d say 2 days max. It’s surely a treat.
